7. Zorba's snore? : ZETAS. "Zzzzz ..." in Greek. I don't think Zorba himself could get this answer.

8. Skyward, in Hebrew : EL AL

9. Toon Le Pew : PEPE

10. Buddy : PAISANO. Close to "peasant" in French.

11. Ambient music pioneer : ENO (Brian)

12. Opp. of express : LOC

13. "Deathtrap" dramatist Levin : IRA

14. Twangy : NASAL

15. __ bottoms : PAJAMA. Do you all wear pajamas to sleep? I can't stand them.

17. Piece keeper : HOLSTER. Nice clue.

18. "All __ is but imitation of nature": Seneca : ART

19. Mg. and kg. : WTs

27. Go after : SEEK

29. Free, in France : LIBRE

33. K-O connection : LMN

34. Japanese carp : KOI. Here is a quiet koi pond. Do you like Zen-feel, Creature?

35. Fifth-century scourge : ATTILA. The Hun.

36. Songwriter DiFranco : ANI

37. Mormons, initially : LDS

39. Landlocked Asian country : LAOS

40. Composer Bartók : BELA

41. Siberian city : OMSK. Over a million people there.

43. Mental impression : PERCEPT. More familiar with perception.

44. Catching the worm? : UP EARLY. I'm an early riser. Dennis also. Marti too. I think. Argyle is a saint. He does not sleep.

46. Onion relative : LEEK

47. Lyrical tribute : ODE

50. Sgt.'s superiors : LTs

53. Duck : SHUN

55. Craggy crest : TOR. Here is all you need to know about TOR. Click Archive, you'll find all the little words in alphabetical order. Don't forget the Clever Clue of the Month. Lots of gems in Paul's website.

Sad news about our LAT constructor Gary Steinmehl, who passed away last Tuesday after a long battle with cancer. Gary had over 200 crosswords puzzles published by LA Times, NY Times, NY Sun, USA Today, etc. Read my interview with him here.Thanks for the puzzles and inspiration, Gary!

79 comments:

Worked for quite awhile, went away, put in some more, watched a new PBS show (William and Mary with Martin Clunes) and then finally finished it off. Whew! This is how I managed to do it without cheating. Had to correct 3 or 4 mistypes before final huzzah!

Friend Chris down with intestinal fllu for NTH day. (Exited the pool suddenly last Tuesday and strewed her lunch all over the patio. Hasn't been able to eat since. Am really worried about her. No good exercise for me since then.)

Gearing up for the big game tonight. My son and I have matching shirts and we'll share a bowl of chips with onion dip in front of the widescreen T.V. while my wife watches with her fingers covering her face (she gets very nervous watching these things).

Didn't enjoy this puzzle all that much, I'm sad to say. The theme was OK, but not memorable. Wasn't happy with most of the icky stuff pointed out by C.C. (SPIN EDITOR, MIB, IMPAIRER, PERCEPT) as well as ONE B. Didn't know ELEANORA, COCOA KRISPIES (only know RICE KRISPIES), WES or the fact that Kate Nelligan played ELENI.

Had TAC (for "tacit") instead of LOC as the opposite of express.

I really don't think of BANGS as being a hair style -- they are part of a hair style, aren't it?

Oh, and before I forget... This has probably been discussed before, but who is JOYCE the co-editor?

Good Morning, C.C. and friends. What a fun puzzle. The YEW tree was my first hidden find. I saw the YEW in BOBBY EWING before I figured out the TREE unifier. Once I caught realized that the YEW was not found in all the theme answers, I had fun looking for, and answering those starred clues.

My favorite clue was Zorba's Snore = ZETAS.

I thought PAJAMA Bottoms was a strange clue/answer.

I have the entire 11 volume set of The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel DURANT. I have only read two of the book, though.

QOD: If man asks for many laws it is only because he is sure that his neighbor needs them; privately he is an unphilosophical anarchist, and thinks laws in his own case superfluous. ~ Will Durant

It took me the longest time to remember Jim Backus’ name at 1A, so I left that corner for last. At 2D, I wanted “on ice”. And 3D was screaming “rice” KRISPIES until COCOA finally emerged. And I totally missed “Athletic supporter” for TEE, and still don’t get the clue…

My only other sticky spot was the “b” in the crossing of MIB and BILGE. Like Hahtool, the theme really helped me with the fill. When I went back to that NW and looked at - - - - ALSALES, I was finally able to fill in GLOBAL. That was the key that finally unlocked the entire section, for me.

R.I.P Gary Steinmehl. It seems to make sense that he was a musician and artist, as many constructors share those talents. His puzzles always challenged me, and it is sad to lose such a productive and brilliant cruciverbalist.

I found this to be a fairly straight-forward solve. Here and there I needed a perp, but in general just kept slogging on to the bottom. I'd never heard of Minogue, so I did WAG the "K" at the KYLIE/KRISPIES crossing. Thought it might have been a "C", but the "K" seemed to work better for someone's name. Whew! Could have earned another DNF.

CC, HeartRx: An athletic supporter could be a fan, a jock strap, or a tee which supports the ball in golf, maybe football as well.

Did yesterday a per usual. Liked it a lot, less work than last Sunday. ATILT -ugh, not a fan of A-word, this was a stinker. Only complaint, I don't even remember the first A-word I tried as I had the cross.

Good morning C.C. and all. No hard copy this morning since the county roads haven't been plowed and the paper guy cant get through. So I printed the puzzle off this site and worked in pencil. That left me without the theme (which is a very clever title), but I doubt it would have helped that much. It all came together slowly and I didn't even look for the trees until I had 95% of the grid filled. DNF for me cuz I couldn't come up with pox or dix. I knew 71D had to be Doh or Duh, but for "Chicken___" I couldn't get past some type of eastern dish, such as Kung Pao Chicken.

Still, a challenging fun puzzle for me and a good way to start the day.

Lucked out on this big beast, managed a no-peeky speed run. Knew KYLIE Minogue from her guest appearance on Vicar of Dibley. She was memorably attractive.

Caught on to the theme about halfway through, which helped with MEDUSAS HEAD. Really struggled with UNLOOSE, it sounds just as slangily wrong as unthaw. Also stumbled at TVMA, just don't know these newfangled ratings. STRIA came slowly even though it was a word used in optics; we mostly used it as a plural, Striae.

Hand up for trouble with Athletic Supporter. I resisted putting in TEE because it just didn't line up with the clue.

Just yesterday a local carpenter and sawmill operator claimed that BALSA is actually a fungus, not a real tree, but there is no mention in Wikipedia. Sounds fishy.

I understand there is some sort of football game today. Can't be bothered with that. We'll be watching Downton Abbey as soon as it comes on!

Hi C.C. and Sunday Solvers. This puzzle 'wood' have been a little easier if I had looked at the title, but it was above the fold in our paper and I never saw it. By the time I got down to TREES, I had already filled GLOBAL SALES, ANKLE MONITOR and TEAKETTLE and was able to spot the theme without too much effort.

I felt really good when BACKUS came to mind immediately, and thought I was really on a roll with RED BARON for that eponymous aeronaut. When I started checking downs, though, that entry flew like a lead ZEPPELIN.

The theme got me out of one jam. I had ELENa crossing HALF aRISH. I thought Corkonian might be some sort of ET races from one of those SciFi series, but when I started looking for the tree I realized my thinking was a FIR bit off the mark.

That X was my last entry. I started with DuH, couldn't come up with chicken pu_ anything, switched to DOH, and almost stopped at chicken POt, but suddenly realized it was an X.

My father bought me a pair of pajamas when I turned 18, and said they were for my wedding night. They were black with red polka dots. 16 years later I wore them for the first time, for a while that night. No pajamas since.

Enjoyed this puzzle, Mark, and the write-up, C.C. Saw the title and got the theme before I filled in anything--for once. Helped some.

Couldn't get Nicola, Global or Stab because I wanted Knockt knees. But I did get DIX/POX cross. (Partly because my neighbor had shingles and her daughter had chicken pox a few years ago. While they were sick, my sewer backed up with very noxious fumes in my house and two weeks later, I had shingles. Cause & effect? I didn't know they were sick until after I had shingles. No direct contact.)

Living alone, I wear pajamas for warmth and in case I have to run out if the house catches fire.

Didn't get Masse or the rating either. But I got so much more than the last two days, if was fun for me. Started off knowing Backus and Zeppelin which was encouraging.

I didn't know who Kylie was, and don't know how tall Kylie is, but I don't really care much. However tall she might be works for me. I'm looking forward to a lot more research.

Today's puzzle otherwise was pretty straightforward, hindered slightly by the our Incredible Shrinking Newspaper's neglect to include the clue for 1A.

I started today in the middle, as I often do, and it was a while before I got to the NW corner. Had _A_KUS pretty quickly, and figured it was either HAIKUS or BACKUS, quickly resolved because the I seemed unlikely.

Favorite clue, after some thought, was Zorba's snore (ZETA). I'd seen Athleric Supporter (TEE) before, and forgotten that grams were units of mass, technically, so wasn't slowed down there at all.

Today is going to be a watching-golf day. I just got a copy of The Rules of Golf (originally around 350 words in 1744, now said to be 40,000), so I'm ready to really kibitz. Golf is probably my second-favorite TV sport. (Beach Volleyball. Why do you ask?)

Nice puzzle. Saw the 'trees' right away, but the starred theme fill was easy enough. Trees were a good check, though. No look-ups needed. Loved the clueing for EXCON and HOLSTER. STRIAe are often seen on exposed surface rock formations in the northern US showing the direction of movement left by the glaciers. While APORT denotes the left side, helm orders are given using 'left' or 'right' as in "Left standard rudder, come to course 270". USS is used for all named Navy ships including battleships.

During the big power outage, we coped with the unusually cold room by wearing snug fitting thermal undies because they don't twist.

You Hugh Laurie fans: just got Season One of Jeeves & Wooster from Netflix. He really did own the role of the air headed Bertie Wooster! It's hard to believe he's not American, when heard speaking on House.

In my limited experience, the term "rudder" is seldom used in sailing craft unless you're talking about the rudder itself (that thingy behind the boat that moves from left to right). It's "helm", "tiller", or "wheel". Things are further confused by the fact that pushing the tiller to the right causes the boat to turn to the left, but orders traditionally referred to the tiller direction. So, "port your helm" would mean "turn right". If you watch the movie Titanic, you'll see the ship turn left in response to the "Hard a' starboard" order. Orders also often relate to the point of sail -- "put down your helm" means move the tiller downwind, with no reference to the boat's direction of turn. Wheels these days are usually rigged such that turning the wheel to the right moves the tiller to the left, turning the ship to the right -- just like the steering wheel works on a car -- so "come left" or "come right" would be normal orders, although I don't ever remember "rudder" being used as it is in larger powered ships.

Argyle @ 12:01. My comment applied only to modern era engine powered ships where the helmsman usually steers by compass. I am not a sailboat sailor. I would think on a large sailing vessel, that steering orders would have to be closely coordinated with the setting of sail changes on any significant course change. Mike @ 12:25 commented on some of this.

This excerpt is from The Ballad of the Calliope, a poem about a ship surviving a hurricane by A.B. Banjo Peterson.

Through that long, long night of dread, While the storm raged overhead, They were waiting by their engines, with the furnace fires aroar; So they waited, staunch and true, Though they knew, and well they knew, They must drown like rats imprisoned if the vessel touched the shore.

Hello everybody. Fun puzzle today. When I got CAPE CANAVERAL and SPIN EDITOR I thought the theme had something to do with PECAN and PINE, namely nuts. But NUTS didn't have enough letters, so my brain was in a small tizzy for a while.

The first time I ever saw Kylie Minogue I was STUNNED by her good looks, so I remembered her right away. Jim BACKUS was another gimme. As Lemonade said, I dare say you wouldn't have asked if we could guess how tall she is unless she was either taller or shorter than anyone would expect. I guessed 5'1, based on that photograph, because, as Lucina said, her feet are far from the end of the lounger.

Like C.C., I like the imagery of a steaming tea kettle.

What Dudley at 9:42 AM said.

I used to wear pajamas but seldom do any more. Good idea to wear *something* though, as PK pointed out.

Lucina, I'm also sports-challenged. I'm always surprised when I correctly answer a sports clue. I haven't been cw puzzling as long as you, though I've been at it daily for over 30 years. I still manage to rack up a handful of DNF's every year, and I hate when it happens.

I am in awe of people who can construct a puzzle that fills 441 boxes but I missed having a theme that was fun and useful. Oh well, there was much more to enjoy than Grinch about. No pshaw!

Musings-I wanted MOP TOPS on John, Paul…-Fun to see Cape Canaveral where I have visited over 40 times. Thousands of jobs are going bye-bye down there. -It is illegal in NE to have those highly reactive alkali metals in school because… (:25)-I’ve had kids for whom ONE B was a highlight-My re-gripped IRONS are doing much better-ZETAS and EL AL took awhile but then DUH!-I hope a REF doesn’t decide the game today-Some pool halls do not allow massé shots because of danger of tearing the velvet-Plowing the streets here requires running the snow blower twice. Once to get the walks etc and once to scoop out their mound. Heavy, wet snow yesterday moved begrudgingly and I had to help neighbor who will not buy a big boy snowblower.

I forgot to mention I enjoyed the extremely clever clues today. Thanks to the constructor and editors. I found the cluing to be more witty and fun-loving than just plain evil, which is the way I like 'em.

I'm not an early riser; never was. These days I usually sleep until 8 or even 9 o'clock. My wife, on the other hand is up and at 'em at 6:00, 7 at the latest.

Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Mark, Rich, and Joyce for a good Sunday puzzle. Thank you, C.C., for the review.

Well, I missed Saturday's puzzle due to being totally occupied all day, from 4:00 AM, to 9:00 PM. I may try it later, during the game.

I enjoyed Sunday's puzzle. Parts were easy and parts were tough. I had most of the theme answers before I got TREES. I believe we had TREES as a theme in another puzzle some time ago. That is OK, just a comment.

I missed on POX and DIX. I did not know DIX, had DIE. No way I would know the french #10. Had POE for Chicken. Thought it was some oriental entree.

Enjoyed ZETAS. Very clever.

Had HATS first for 63A. Fixed it to CAPS.

Had AHEM for 76D before PSST became obvious.

Had OUTEES first, then GIN MILL fixed that to OUTIES.

Had no problem with ATILT. After reading the comments I checked my Webster, it is in there. Copyright 1969.

I am off to Alexandria, VA on Tuesday. We'll see how my IPAD works with the puzzle. Dudley helped me get that going.

Very enjoyable puzzle and writeup. Some of the clues were clever including 'Piece keeper' I thought. I had the same misgiving about Mg and Kg being measures of mass instead of weight.

Yes, I went to Cornell in Ithaca. That's got to be one of the prettiest places in the US in the fall. However, I was working so hard to keep my head above water in engineering that it was hard for me to appreciate all the area had to offer.

No PJs for me either. Things get all twisted around. Kylie looks short to me.

Irish Miss, funny prank! I love jokes like that where everybody enjoys it, rather than the practical jokes where the subject gets upset or is embarrassed.

All along I have found it interesting that the common every day usage of words is much less exacting than the way professionals in that field use those words.

A case in point is that common usage regards robbery, stealing, burglary, and thievery as interchangable. Attorneys and others in the law profession certainly differ in that. Who is wrong? IMHO, neither.

Common usage also defines less rigorously certain words scientists use quite exactly. I taught the difference between WEIGHT and MASS. MASS is the amount of matter in an object and does not change. WEIGHT is the pull of gravity on an object,. A object weighs less on the moon where there is less gravitational pull, and more on Saturn where the graviational pull is greater. In common usage the words are used as synopnyms. IMHO that is okay.

As I was solving I thought this was a fairly easy Sunday puzzle ... and then had to look up ZEPPELIN and BELA ... ugh. I caught the theme when I saw LEMON and LIME. I didn't think of fruit because of the puzzle title. And joho ~ I too saw 'corpse' at first glance!

At 1A I could see the face but couldn't think of his name. I thought if I had even one letter I could get it. The U in UCLA gave me what I needed.

We just back from lunch at our favorite local Cubano restaurant. Usually, I like to try different things but their speciality is so good that I get it every time. (I just discovered that the above is the British spelling. It should be specialty here. I don't know why I didn't know that.) Anyway, we had roast pork with grilled onions, rice, black beans, fried plantains, Arnold Palmers and we split a flan for dessert. All for $33 plus tip.

Lemonade ~ I'm just a bit north of Durham so pretty much at the half-way point. I like that I don't really have a favorite here ... I have enough stress during baseball season!

Bill G. ~ Nice lunch! I also didn't know that about 'speciality.' (Just noticed that my spell-check doesn't like it.) I knew it was pronounced differently but didn't realize there was a difference in spelling, too.

I'm taping the Super Bowl and am about a half hour behind. Jordan and I went for a macchiato and I bought him a new comic book. (I also showed him the video from Irish Miss.) I was impressed with the renditions of American the Beautiful and the National Anthem. Also, working the sidelines today is an ex-student of mine, Michele Tafoya.

Not a particularly exciting puzzle today, but the POX/DIX squares got me at the end. Got everything else with no lookups and some SWAGs. Did the puzzle while some game was going on between all the not-so-great commercials. I knew Jim BACKUS right off, but I really wanted riceKRISPIES, which of course didnt fit. Never heard of COCOAKRISPIES. Never heard of PLUperfect either. Is it me, or is this blog extremely addictive??

@CEDave: A crossword dictionary is more like a thesaurus in that it doesnt contain definitions, but has synonyms for commonly used crossword clues. Best one I have seen is the Million Word Crossword Dictionary, by Stanley Newmann and Daniel Stark. I got mine about 4 years ago, haven't looked since for a new one.

The weather has been pretty here for the past week or two but a high-pressure area results in low humidity. That always makes me feel uncomfortable and chilled. I think it must be because the low humidity means the moisture on one's skin evaporates quickly. But rain is due Tuesday. I'm looking forward to it.

That was a good Super Bowl game but overhyped as usual. Did you get excited about any of the new ads? Me either.